Sunday, February 20, 2011

As I was putting this up, I see that the EU ministers have condemned the bloody crackdown on protesters. Via ABC news:

We condemn the repression against peaceful demonstrators and deplore the violence and the death of civilians," said a statement issued after a meeting of European foreign ministers.

"The EU urges the authorities to exercise restraint and calm and to immediately refrain from further use of violence against peaceful demonstrators," the ministers said, adding that "the legitimate aspirations and demands of the people for reform" must be addressed through dialogue.

Note that these words of condemnation (not even actions) did not sit well with the Libyan regime who has warned the EU against lending vocal support to the protesters. AlertNet Reuters reports that "The Hungarian ambassador was called in in Libya on Thursday and was given the message that Libya is going to suspend cooperation with the EU on immigration issues if the EU keeps making statements in support of Libyan pro-democracy protests," a spokesman for Hungary, which holds the EU's rotating six-month presidency, said.

Apparently, Libya has frequently threatened to cancel cooperation with the EU on illegal migration in the past. In December, a minister said Libya would scale back efforts to stem the flow of migrants unless the EU paid 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) a year.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that migrants from across Africa account for about 10 percent of Libya's six million population, although only a minority of those attempt to travel on to Europe to find work.Tens of thousands of illegal migrants try to make the journey from the northern coasts of Tunisia and Libya to islands off Italy every year, with hundreds having to be rescued by Italy's coastguard and housed in migration centres.The European Commission said in October it would spend 50 million euros to help Libya tackle illegal migration and protect migrants' rights.

Just after midnight in WDC on Sunday, Reuters is reporting that the US has issued its strongest condemnation yet of Libya's violent crackdown on protesters, citing what it called credible reports of hundreds of deaths and injuries and threatening to take "all appropriate actions" in response.Libya will surely have a come back for that. I suspect that the ordered departure for US personnel in Tripoli can happen quickly.